Contentment

An address given by the Warden of Shanti Sadan

In the Vedanta classic, the Yoga Vasishtha, we read:

The Spring is full of charm and so are the gardens of Paradise, but all these joys are found in contentment, which is capable of yielding all delight.

One of the great qualities of mind of those steeped in spiritual wisdom is contentment, in Sanskrit, santosha. It implies a calm, effortless happiness which can and will see us through the ups and downs we encounter in life. Such contentment is based on inner communion with our true Self and the realisation that it is, in the phrase of the Katha Upanishad, the Self of peace—the shanta-atman.